‘Ease off’, councils told

‘Ease off’, councils told

Horizons Regional Council has been told in a letter from ministers Chris Bishop and Todd McClay to ease off on regulations, especially when dealing with resource consents, and urging it “to be sensible and not see farmers as the enemy.”

RMA legislation has been removed and a replacement is not yet in the starting blocks, leaving many councils guessing. Horizons says until the new legislation is in place it will have to apply the old one.

Minister Todd McClay, left, and Chris Bishop, who have told councils to ‘be sensible and not see farmers as the enemy”.

Chief executive Michael McCartney acknowledged receipt of this letter and told the Star: “Horizons already exercises discretion under the Resource Management Act during the consenting process, including extending timeframes and working with individual applicants to achieve pragmatic solutions.

“While a new consenting system is on the way, regional councils are legally required to operate in line with existing legislation.”

Doing otherwise, he says, even with best intentions, could create unintended legal consequences for Horizons and consent applicants.

“A solution central government could consider to provide legal security would be to provide a transitional provision between the current and future resource management systems, especially for applications to extend resource consents which are about to expire.

“Horizons supports the intent behind central government’s resource management reforms, and the aim of creating a simplified and improved planning system which also enables improved economic and environmental outcomes.

“There is no argument from regional councils, including Horizons, that change to the resource management system is required,” he says. “We want this change to result in benefits for the economy, the environment and the people who work, live and play in our region.”

Horowhenua District Council chief executive Monique Davidson says she’s aware of the letter, which has gone to regional rather than district councils.

“We are working with the information currently available,” she says. “We understand that the timeline for replacing the RMA aims for the new legislation to be passed by mid-2026, with bills to be introduced to Parliament by the end of this year. We anticipate being updated by the Ministry for the Environment as part of their progress updates to other councils.

“Any District Plan or RMA related work that we are continuing with is done on the basis that it has an alignment with the government’s direction of travel and signals that the government has provided.  As more detail about the legislation comes out, officers will review the work to check for alignment. 

“These reviews and assessments will be undertaken before progressing with key parts of the process such as hearings. We currently believe that there is sufficient alignment with the government’s direction to seek an exemption for Plan Change 6A to continue to hearings and a decision. 

“The decision by the minister will dictate whether this work proceeds.”

RMA Reform Minister Bishop and Agriculture Minister McClay wrote that they continued to hear reports that many resource consent processes were unduly complex, characterised by excessive information requests and conditions that imposed unnecessary cost and administrative burden on applicants.

“These reports are concerning to us,” they said. “We are writing to set clear expectations of you as the local authorities who oversee the use of land, water, and discharges. We expect you to be seeking opportunities to streamline consenting processes, reduce onerous requirements wherever possible, and ease the consenting burden while we get the system changes in place.

“Where appropriate, this will mean exercising discretion available to you under the RMA, which can include extending consenting timeframes and working with individual applicants to reach pragmatic solutions.

“We are developing a detailed transition plan for the new planning system, and this will be provided to you shortly after the introduction of the legislation later this year. This will provide you with more certainty on how to manage consenting processes during the transition period to the new system. Until then, we expect you to exercise sensible judgement.